Tag Archives: MacBook Pro

Today's man is stylish and cosmopolitain, well-connected and well dressed. And it's about time we found a laptop bag that answered to that. Good thing then that we at Pure Mobile recently came across the LE Rush from Be.ez.

Designed for MacBook Air and Macbook Pro up to 13-inch, It's one of the top styles we've seen in laptop travel bags for men on the go. Simple and classic, it's got the look of a sleek messenger bag – that all-season menswear staple – but comes with the storage, organization and protection you need for your MacBook laptop.

As much as we love the exterior of the LE Rush, especially in the modern and masculine brown and black "Black Coffee" finish, there ought to be something said here for its interior and for the quality of its construction.

Made with a high-durability and low-maintenance nylon outer, it's strong and dirt resistant, with handles and removable strap for either briefcase or messenger carrying styles.

On the inside, it boasts a custom-fit compartment for MacBook Air and MacBook pro laptops of up to 13 inches, with high-density padding to protect your device. There's also place for documents and a front pocket with contrasting brown inner on the flap for extra storage, so its really the only bag you need for work or school.

With the LE Rush Bag, Be.ez has done well by modern men, serving up a travel bag that looks more like fashion that it does a mobile accessory, but which offers the protection, comfort and organization you need from a laptop bag. It's just one thing that'll make your busy life that much easier, and it looks good to boot.

In the realm of MacBook accessories, there's figuratively cool and then there's literally cool. Today we're talking about the later, that less flashy but incredibly essential item, the cooling stand or chill pad. For anyone who uses their MacBook as their primary computer, one maintenance concern rises above all others – keeping their laptop from overheating. And Moshi has addressed the issue with their sleek and highly efficient Zefyr 2 Cooler.

Even though MacBooks are renowned for their performance, which easily matches that of many desktop computers – most of Pure Mobile's blog posts are written from a MacBook air – the fact that laptops have much smaller fans than desktop models means they can get pretty hot pretty fast. This is especially true if you're gaming, watching video, or loading your computer down with heavy-duty work.

But, with its double fan design and twin convection funnels to draw heat outward and away, Moshi's Zephyr 2 keeps your MacBook nice and cool, so that it can run at the speed it's supposed to.

Made of aircraft-grade aluminum and white plastic, the Zephyr 2's look is in keeping with Apple's signature minimalist white aesthetic. It's a small and compact wedge-shaped design that props your laptop at an angle that's comfortable for typing. Convenient details, like anti-slip rubber pads, and an additional USB port to compensate for the one used to connect the stand to your MacBookshow the thought that went into the Zephyr 2's design.

You can run the Zephyr 2 with one or two fans at a time, and the cooling fans themselves are extremely quiet; On low setting, they're next to silent. But the main thing is that they perform as they're supposed to, keeping your MacBook at optimal performance and maintaing its system stability.

A cooling stand or chill pad may not immediately jump out as the flashiest of MacBook accessories. But for anyone who (like this blogger) is more than a little dependent on their laptop, it's an essential piece of hardware for prolonging device life and maintaining performance. And a sleek, portable and efficient model like Moshi's Zephyr 2 is a good bet.

Everything has become easier since smartphones, and that goes for traveling too. With easy access to maps, GPS, flight and train schedules, our cell phones, tablets and laptops are now an essential part of globetrotting. But almost as essential are certain mobile accessories that help make sure our wireless devices are always working in top order. The following are Pure Mobile's picks for the 5 best gadgets for travel – don't leave home without them!

1. Backup power

Your phone and tablet are pretty useless if they run out of juice. And not every country has the same type of electrical outlet, so even if you bring your phone charger, you may find yourself out of luck. Be on the safe side and travel with a backup battery pack. Backup power is also great if you're out and about sightseeing and away from an outlet for any period of time.

We recommend Scosche's goBAT II, a high capacity battery backup for iPhone and iPad, or Dexim's BluePack Battery, which works for nearly all devices, from iPhone to Android and BlackBerry.

2. A sturdy laptop bag

If you do decide to bring your laptop or notebook, it simply won't do to just cram it into your travel pack. Instead, invest in a good case or travel bag designed to fit your laptop securely, with extra room for passport, souvenirs and whatever else you may need.

For an over-the-shoulder style, we like Targus' Classic Notebook Case for sturdiness and organization. And for backpacks, Incase's Terra Campus pack offers padded protection for both your MacBook Pro and iPad, with tons of extra storage.

Incase's Terra Campus pack offers padded protection for you MacBook and iPad, as well as super organized storage for anything else

3. A good multipurpose cable

Even with a battery pack, you're going to need a good cable for charging and syncing. We like Dexim's Green Cable Universal, which, as the name suggests works for most if not all devices. Featuring EL technology which reduces power consumption, it not only allows your device to charge really quickly, but also glows while it's charging, to let you know when your battery is full. Neat-o!

4. A wallet phone or tablet case

Especially when traveling, it's nice to have all your essentials – phone, money, and cards – all in one spot. That's easy with a wallet or folio-style phone case. Griffin's Midtown Wallet is the perfect pick for the iPhone 5, with slots for cards and cash, and their Elan Passport does the same for your iPad 2.

Keep your tablet, cards and cash all in one place with Griffin's Elan Passport Case for iPad 2

5. Compact earbuds

If you've ever been on an 8-hour flight with an unhappy baby, you'll understand the need for a good set of headphones while traveling. Earbuds are more compact, and easier to cary around, so make sure you've got a good pair that can drown out unwanted noise, like Beats by Dre's urBeats, which are small and lightweight but also have a super-tough metal housing.

There's a reason why Incase consistently ranks as one of our favorite brands for smartphone, tablet and laptop accessories. The company's always thinking up new ways to make our digital lives just a little bit easier, more streamlined, more stylish.

And this week's Mobile Accessory of the Week zeroes in on the latest collection from this leading label – the Terra line of sleek, uncomplicated carrying cases and sleeves.

So-called because of the natural woven materials Incase uses to make these laid-back, lightweight traveling cases, the Terra line comes in either a light natural canvass or slick charcoal grey chambray, both of which are as durable as they are attractive.

The MacBook Pro is less than a week old (in the public’s view) and the devices are already being sacrificed in the name of curiosity.

The folks at iFixit took apart MacBook Pro’s 2880 x 1800 Retina display panel, and what they discovered is making them rethink LCD construction. It’s incredible what Apple engineers have done to make that kind of resolution work in a laptop screen that's thinner than anything seen in its geneology.

The unibody aluminum casing is the frame for the display. The LCD is its own front glass. Even the wireless antennas are threaded through the hinges to maximize use of even the tiniest of spaces.

Guard the Retina display with your life. This kind of parts layout means you can probably forget about repairs. Even the masters of the teardown at iFixit cracked the display’s glass during their dissection.

If you’re willing to forgive the disposability problem, the MacBook Pro’s Retina display is a high-resolution engineering marvel. Just don’t drop it.

The folks at iFixit got their hands on a final version of Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Retina Display this week, and what did they do? They tore it apart. Here are a couple of things they found:

Samsung SSD and Hynix RAM cannot be upgraded. You’ll have to decide upfront how much capacity you’ll need over the life of your MacBook Pro.

The battery is glued to the housing and the display is fused into the assembly. Replacing the battery or the display will be expensive.

Maybe the amount of power packed into the MacBook Pro will somewhat make up for this criticism. The laptop is packing 95% of juice. That’s enough for seven hours of power. Even for some of the smartphones and tablets out there that kind of battery life is a stretch.

During the keynote at the WWDC Apple showed off the next-gen MacBook Pro with Retina display and the updates for others in the Pro family. Because we know you won’t want to wait till the end for this, prices for the MacBook Pro start at $2199. It’s available immediately. Prices for the other models follow at the end.

The most impressive thing about the new MacBook Pro is the brand new high-density display. The display has four times the number of pixels as the previous model at 220 pixels-per-inch or 5,184,000 pixels. It’s 15.4 inches across, but its pixel density is 2880 by 1800.

If that’s not enough for you, here is a summary of the features sported by the new MacBook Pro:

A 178-degree wide viewing angle that has 75 percent less reflection and 29 percent higher contrast than the previous generation

A 2.3GHz quad-core i7 processor with 8GB of RAM, a GeForce Gt 650M with 1GB of VRAM, 256GB of flash storage, and up to 16GB of 1600MHz RAM

Up to seven hours of battery life and 30 days of standby. (The battery takes up most of the interior.)

Built around flash storage, users can configure their models at up to 768GB of internal flash storage

The fastest graphics on a Mac laptop—Nvidia GeForce GT 650M

802.11n Wi-Fi

Bluetooth 4.0.

A FaceTime HD camera

Dual mics using beam-forming technology

An SD card, HDMI out, USB3/USB2 ports on either side, two Thunderbolt ports, and a headphone port

Fan blades asymmetrically spaced so that the fan noise is not a uniform sound, but more dispersed

A new, thinner MagSafe 2 power port

Glass Multi-Touch trackpad

A backlit keyboard

At 4.46 pounds, the new Pro is heavier than an Air, but comparable to the 13-inch MacBook Pros. Like the new Air, it has no optical drive. Closed, it’s about as thick as the base of the old MacBook Pro but about as thin as an Air, at 0.71 inches.

Apple has made their MacBook Pro as environmentally friendly as an electronic device can get with an Energy Star 5.2 rating. It’s arsenic-free, BFR-free and PVC-free. It’s also highly recyclable, and has mercury-free glass.

New specs for the rest of the MacBook Pro family :

Along with the MacBook Pro with Retina display, Apple revealed other news on updates to the current MacBook Pro line.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro has a 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of memory and 500GB hard drive and starts at $1,199. With a 2.9 GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of memory, and a 750GB hard drive its prices start at $1,499.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro has a 2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 4GB of memory, Intel HD Graphics 4000, Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics, and a 500GB hard drive starting at $1,799. With a 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of memory, Intel HD Graphics 4000, Nvidia GeForce GT 650M graphics, and a 750GB hard drive it starts at $2,199. Faster quad-core processors up to 2.7GHz, additional hard drive capacity up to 1TB, up to 8GB of memory, and solid state storage up to 512GB are available options.

Two new benchmark results appearing in Geekbench's database are sparking rumors of new Apple MacBook Pro and iMac products. A number of leaked preliminary specification from these unreleased products which have been dubbed as the MacBook Pro 9.1 and iMac 13.2 have been posted on MacRumors.

Everyone is hoping that details on the new devices will be shared with the world during the keynote address at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference which is coming up on June 11th. All we have right now is a lot of guessing. It’s even unclear if the laptop model referenced in the benchmark results is the new ultra-thin 15-inch MacBook Pro model due out this summer.

Apple is making noise and hinting that it is preparing to introduce a $799 MacBook Air model for launch as early as 3rd quarter this year. Apple already has new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models planned for the market this summer.

According to a source in the Apple supply chain, Apple is putting together a less expensive ultrabook model with an 11-inch screen. If we’re lucky, Apple will share its Air with us at the annual Worldwide Developer Conference that’s coming up on June 11th.

Acer and Intel are continuing to aggressively pursue the ultrabook market with plans to launch their own versions this year. Intel is planning on a price point of $699 which should offer some competition to an Apple MacBook Air price of $799. However, many believe that ultrabook sales projections for the competition will under-deliver until the launch of Windows 8.

Currently, Apple's 11-inch 64GB MacBook Air is priced at $999 with a 128GB version priced at $1,199. The 13-inch 128GB version is priced at $1,299 and 256GB version is $1,599.

What a nice change of pace to hear news about major improvement’s to Apple’s newest version of its MacBook Pro! With mobile technology more prevalent in our daily lives, consumers are used to being inundated with updates of the latest tablets, smartphones and the like. And while Apple has done a great job of branding its Macs, we just don’t get as many updates on them.

So without further ado, an anonymous source spoke to MIC Gadget about the possibility of Apple switching back to NVIDIA as the primary GPU of its upcoming Mac Pro. That change is not the only one expected with the latest version of the company’s swanky offering. Reports also indicate that the new Mac Pro will sport Intel’s upcoming Ivy Bridge chipset. This will result in a faster, more efficient processor than the Sandy Bridge processor thanks to 22 nanometer transistor technology.

These new chips also address the overheating issues that have been problematic with past models with a 30% increase in heat dissipation efficiency. According to the MIC Gadget report there is some testing of 8-core processors with 20MB of cache that would really add some zoom zoom to the Mac Pro.

As it is typically the more creative and aesthetically driven set that reaches for Macs (artists, musicians, writers and the like), they will be pleased to know that NVIDIA’s “Kepler” platform was chosen for the graphics (this platform is slated to launch approximately the same time at the new Intel CPUs this year). But, as Apple doesn’t plan to unveil its latest Mac Pro line until third quarter of this year, additional details and changes are bound to come our way before the finished product hits shelves. Perhaps we will see peripheral devices at this year’s Mobile World Congress that will tie in Apple’s personal computer offerings to their strong line iYouNameIt.